As is true for a lot of people, fewer musicians have had as profound effect on my tastes and standards for music as has Scott Herren. The Piano Overlord and Savath/Savalas stuff is great, but early Prefuse 73 changed my life in ways that I am not even aware of yet . "One Word Extinguisher" could very well be my favorite album ever, "Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives" is outstanding, and the "92 vs 02 Collection" is, in my mind, one of the best EPs to come out in the 2000's. This music was so smart and new, and I'd say that probably 90% of the artists talked about on this blog would not be the musicians they are without these records.
Simultaneously, excepting Wilco, who is all but dead to me, no other artists has fallen from my personal radar more than P73. Not only has he either been visibly too drunk to perform or simply cancelled 3 shows at which I have paid to see him, but his records haven't done it for me in a while. Now I'm not one of those super-cereal haters who thinks that everything since the 92/02 EP has been garbage. "Preparations," "Surrounded by Silence," and especially "Security Screenings" all have a lot of really cool ideas, but they're all so unfocused and inconsistent that I listen to them a couple times but can never make myself sit down with the whole record. I regret to say that his newest release, "Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian" feels that way to me also. I wish he would just concentrate on developing that weirdly spastic and fragile hip-hop--meets-IDM sound because for my money, no one can do it as well as he can to this day.
To the delight of whiny bitches like me everywhere, this mix has more than a few glimmers of said trailblazing sound, as well as a shitload of other really cool stuff. Mixing heady acid folk, Boredoms, and all kinds of weird and rare stuff that I'm sure he and 5 other people in the world own on acetate with some newer P73 songs, my 2 favorite Madvillainy vocal tracks, and even some WWwWWOOooobbBbBlllllLLee, this is a really great mix for both people who are really down with Scott Herren and for people who might not know a lot about him. AND, he released it as a precursor to a show he's doing at the MOMA tonight, which is insanely dope (provided he decides to come and stays from booze). Big ups Scott; thanks for everything, including this mix.
